Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Pint glasses full of Fossil Fuels Beer are raisingeyebrows around northern California. This could be due to the fact that theunique ingredient for the line of Fossil Fuels beer is a yeast strain datingback to the Eocene Epoch, which is about 45 million years ago. A team ofscientists, Dr. Raul Cano (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA) and Lewis “Chip”Lambert (Fremont, CA), are partnering with brew master Joe Kelley (Kelley Bros.Brewing, Manteca, CA) and attorney Scott Bonzell (Oakland, CA) to produce whatis surely one of the most interesting and unique beers of this or any time.With the green light from beer critics, brewers and end consumers alike, theteam that comprises Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. is gearing up to share the productwith the public.The history of the yeast literally dates back beforethe dawn of man, to a time when the earth was warm, tropical and teeming withlife. Modern mammals that we see today were beginning to appear in what isknown as the Eocene epoch (from the Greek word eos meaning “dawn”). During thistime, a snapshot of biological life was trapped by tropical tree sap. Over thecourse of millions of years, the sap hardened into amber, which preserved andprotected its contents. That is, until Dr. Cano, using amber obtained fromlocations around the world (including Burma, Central and North America),isolated and revived a bacterium, which had lain dormant in the gut of anencased bee for approximately 40 million years (Science 268, pp. 1060-1064,1995). During his research, Dr. Cano, periodically working with Mr. Lambert,isolated a few yeast strains that resembled modern Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Inother words, they are similar to the yeast we use every day for brewing andbaking, except the newly discovered yeasts were much further back in theevolutionary chain. Essentially, Dr. Cano isolated the long lost ancestors ofmodern brewing yeast.Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. hosted a launch party atKelly Brothers Brewing Co. in the summer of 2008 to commence the release oftheir new beer brewed with its truly remarkable yeast to the public.